The biggest RTC raised in captivity is 160 cm or 5'4", 41 years old (in 2013)

[RD.]

What's the argument here? lol

The largest RTC ever caught by hook & line in the wild, was smaller than this specimen raised in captivity in a zoo.

7 Largest Catfish Ever Caught - Largest.org

Overall, catfish are some of the most abundant species of fish in the world. According to Practical Fishkeeping, there are ... Read more

largest.org

The world’s largest redtail catfish was captured in 2010 by Gilberto Fernandes in Brazil’s Amazon River. Fernandes’ redtail catfish was 123 pounds 7 ounces (56 kilograms) and 4.62 feet (1.408 meters) long. There really isn’t any more details about Fernandes’ catch, but he did use a fiberglass Sportex rod to land the redtail catfish.

According to a news report, Fernandes has over 100 IGFA world fishing records. Just a month before he made his record redtail catfish catch, Fernandes caught another redtail that was 113 pounds 8 ounces (51.5 kilograms).



Are their larger WC specimens that have been documented? I would love to see them.

 

[fishhead0103666]

I have to disagree Neil,

catfishes over 50 kg >> Phractocephalus hemioliopterus

Records and photos of the 500 largest freshwater fishes worldwide. The first database that includes all large freshwater fish worldwide! Official and informal world records of freshwater fishes.

www.fishing-worldrecords.com

I specifically remember this as Victor posted this link in response to something I said months ago.

 

[RD.]

Disagree with what? That's the exact same fish that I linked to. lol

 

[fishhead0103666]

Did you see the “other methods”?

 

[RD.]

You said you disagreed, I clearly stated: Are their larger WC specimens that have been documented? I would love to see them. If those other methods are documented cases, then bravo. But from what I can see (some of that page is blocked by ads for me) there is only one documented fish represented on the page that you linked to - the rest are "unknown" or "questionable".

 

[fishhead0103666]

Ok, I understand your point of view and it’s reasonable. My question is if they recognized it then why didn’t they list how it was caught or have more concrete proof?

 

[RD.]

They state below: records based on anecdotal reports, verification not possible. That seems pretty clear to me, and it's not just a point of view. It's the facts as they were presented. The only fish truly recognized on that page is the one that I previously linked to. Currently, the RTC raised in captivity is winning.

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

Fishing Worldrecords

Records and photos of the 500 largest freshwater fishes worldwide. The first database that includes all large freshwater fish worldwide! Official and informal world records of freshwater fishes.

www.fishing-worldrecords.com

record category:	questionable
weight:	+ 80,00 kg ( + 176 lb )
length:	+ 160 cm ( + 63 inches )
locality:	Rio Araguaia, Brazil
year:	2009

record caught by: Marcelo Siqueira, courtesy of: Mark Jones
comment: verification not possible, maybe rod & reel world record

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

One thing I don't get in all of this talk about potential runts and throw outs from commercial farms breeding fish to feed people:-
If I were breeding a fish to feed people, I would use parents which had the best growth, the biggest fish, the fastest growing ones, and id feed the little ones up fast, ok maybe not with the best food but just like chickens, you want big uns fast and get rid.
So if the aquatics trade gets so many poor quality slow growing, smaller fish, then how???????
Where do they all come from?????I
It makes little sense that they are coming from these farms.
Or is someone trying to tell me that some expert Japanese koi breeder who can spot a show koi at 1cm from 100 yds is now in a fish farm spotting potential slow growing cats and runts at 1".

Hi Dave, glad to see you back. You are objecting to what I said and usually say and I am usually alone in saying it, so it's just a conjecture of mine. You may be right.

Yet, in my defense, the farms work quite efficiently at rooting out underperforming youngsters. There are clever machines that work like a sifter for live fish and these machines separate the batches of fish by size efficiently. Some use pipes of various diameter, some use spinning rollers, etc.

For instance:

Sometimes it is done semi-manually:

Or completely manually:

The sifting is done many times throughout the early growing stages. All underperformers better be removed while small.

I believe the vast majority of the culls is made into fertilizer or fish meal / fish feed. Ornamental fish trade gets probably the tiniest portion of all the culled biomaterial - the market is puny versus other markets.

The sorting of fingerling is one of the crucial and fundamental operations at any fish farm or hatchery. No matter how great your parent fish are, the offspring will be subject to a bell-type curve in terms of growth rates, etc. and the slowest ones will hurt the bottom line. Mathematical modeling is used to optimize the whole operation and to determine the sweet spot at which to "dissect" the bell curve into the keepers and culls, which will result in the highest profit and smallest losses.

 

[RD.]

Even questionable and verification not possible, that is one heck of an RTC!

We may need to get the tape out again for a 2019 measurement on the zoo specimen. lol